MORGAN
,
WILLIAM
(
1750
-
1833
),
actuary
;
b. in
June 1750
at
Bridgend, Glam.
, brother of
George CadoganMorgan
and nephew of the
philosopherRichardPrice
(qq.v.). He was
apprenticed to an apothecary
in
London
, but in
1772Price
got him a place in the
Equitable Assurance Society
, where his progress was so rapid that from
1775
till his retirement in
1830
he was its
chief actuary
. Like his uncle, he was a strong
Radical
, and his house on
Stamford Hill
was the resort of men like
HorneTooke
and
TomPaine
and
FrancisBurdett
. He d.
4 May 1833
, and was buried at
Hornsey
.
Morgan
is regarded as
one of the pioneers of scientific life-insurance
. He
published tables and important articles on the principles of life-insurance
, and it was on his tables that another
Welshactuary
,
GriffithDavies
(q.v.)
founded his own.
Morgan
received the
gold medal of the Royal Society
in
1783
, and was
F.R.S.
Like his uncle, he strongly opposed the swelling of the national debt, and he published six pamphlets on that matter. He edited
RichardPrice
's works, with a biography.

Bibliography:

Sources as for George Cadogan Morgan.

Author:

Corrections and additions:

MORGAN
,
WILLIAM
(
1750
-
1833
;
DWB
, 657).
B.
26 May 1750
. He was
apprenticed to two apothecaries
in
London
and was a student at
St. Thomas’ Hospital
. He returned to
Bridgend
in
1772
to take up his father's practice after his death. He went to
London
in
1773
where he may have
kept a school
for a while. He was appointed to the
Equitable17 Apr. 1774
.

He valued the
Equitable
in
1775
, the first office to be valued, and the
Equitable
in
1800
was the first office ever to add a bonus on payment made on a policy. In addition to his work with the
Equitable
he advised the
Scottish Widows
office when it was set up. It is likely that he was the
first to produce X-rays
when he passed electricity through an almost airless tube.

His son
Arthur
was an
actuary
at the
Equitable
from
1830 to 1870
and was an
F.R.S.
Another son,
William
, who d. young was an
assistant actuary
briefly and a grandson,
William
, was an
assistant actuary
from
1870 to 1892
.

Bibliography:

Peter H. Thomas
in
The Glamorgan Historian(1963)
, 89;

Maurice Edward Ogborn
,
Equitable Assurances, The story of life
assurance in the experience of the Equitable Life Assurance
Society, 1762-1962
, London, 1962
(1962)
;